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Having returned from Spain, canceled our contract to go with an off plan and the cheque in the safe hands of our lawyer, we are thinking about buying a plot of land and building on it ourselves. We were fortunate to design and build our own home in the UK, so we would like to do this in Spain with the same plans of our house here.. Any body got any guide lines, experience on this???

Have already bought the land – and when we get our money back from the Spanish developer (who has been sitting on our money for nearly 3 years and hasn’t built a thing! ) we will have our money to build our house with.

The bank is refusing to honour the bank guarantee until its enforcement date of September, despite ‘no build’ since Summer 2003, so we have to go through the courts. Papers have been submitted, just waiting for a court date. What a farce!

The key to achieving this is involving a good, local, and English-speaking architect before you buy your plot. Get him to square everything with the council before you, or your lawyer, signs the exchange contract.

This probably means finding the architect before you find the plot.

When you show the architect your building plans he will probably express disapproval about this and that, and then ask you to commission him to design something similar using Spanish building techniques and local materials. I would follow his advise.

He may be able to recommend a local builder with whom he has worked before. This too would probably solve many potential problems.

With the plot bought and an architect on board you shouldn’t have any problems finding an English-speaking Spanish bank branch to finance most of the project.

As anywhere in the world, be prepared for quite a lot of paperwork and time over-runs. Good luck!

Thank you for your advise. Life is a roller coaster of experiences and we don’t want to jump out of the frying pan into the fire!!! Thank goodness we were able to sort out our problem with the off plan. You must feel very upset especially with them having your money for over 3 years, ours was over 14 months for the main chunk of the money. Our lawyer was very good, always honest about the situation. She is on the forum list for lawyers to be reccommended. I am not sure if I can say who she is. If you wish please send me a private email and I will tell you her name. I would strongly reccomend getting together with both lawyer and developer and talking through the situation together, advising them of the problems you have with it all. Don’t think I am telling you how to handle your affairs,it is just that it worked for me and I wish that everybody else in this type of situation could be successful too!!!!

Rawlins,

Thank you also for your advice, my lawyer sent me a contact of hers and this afternnoon I did email to him, I have just recieved his breakdown of what would be covered, costs etc, it is so complex we will have to read it over and over to absorb it all. We intend to buy the land this year if poss, then in 2 years time when we plan to move over to Spain, start with the build in between time do all the necessary papers etc in readiness hopefully for when we move ( anyone got a 4 bedroomed Caravan???)
If only it were so simple!!!!

It is the GRAND NATIONAL this weekend, I printed the list off. Notice a horse in the race called ‘SUPREME DEVELOPER’ I have got to put a couple of quid on him.

Hi, We bought a plot some time ago and have just started having a villa built. It is a long and stressfull road to go down but the reward will be worthwhile. You need a registered Architect, get him to prepare the drawings etc to your design, these then go to the local town hall for approval where you also pay the license. Meantime find a builder you are happy with. The arcitecht and his aparajador will prepare the ‘mediciones’ which is the document the builders will quote against ( literally a list of quantaties and qualaties down to door knobs etc ). When these are in place you are ready to go. Brace yourself for the long wait for everything to happen and the costs you will be quoted. Good Luck

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Registration will allow you to participate in the forum, exchange private messages with other users, and save articles and properties in your favourites. Your information will not be used for any other purpose, and you can delete your profile at any time by emailing gdpr@spanishpropertyinsight.com. By submitting this form you agree to our Privacy Policy, Terms of Use, and Cookie Policy.